Boots 'n' All discuss Andy Burnham's comments that clubs are being held back by the licensing system.

Shadow minister Burnham has called for the Rugby Football League to reintroduce promotion and relegation back to the Super League.

The former culture secretary believes the licensing system is a 'closed shop' and fails to provide fans with the 'dream factor' of winning promotion and playing the game's elite.

Super League is now in its second period of three-year licensing, which was introduced in an effort to introduce stability after clubs experienced extreme difficulties due to the previous "yo-yo" system.

Burnham, whose constituency includes Championship club Leigh Centurions, wants the structure to revert to the more traditional model of relegation and promotion.

Paul Cullen, Director of Rugby at Widnes knows first-hand about the licensing agreement having seen his club elevated to the Super League in the second round of licences.

"I am in the box seat and we are striving to make the best of the three year franchise," explained Cullen on Boots 'n' All.

"I welcome Andy's comments - there is nothing better than healthy open debate.

"We were fighting for the franchise system for two or three seasons - our main competitor's during that period were Barrow, Halifax and Leigh themselves.

"The financial crisis that Halifax, Barrow and Leigh have gone through is a stark warning that should not be ignore by anyone about how difficult it is to build a side in a very short period of time, sustain it and then get better.

"I say this with the outmost respect - the players are in the Championship for a reason. There are the odd one or two who can come through - Chris Hill is great example. He came through the Leigh system and is playing very well for the Warrington wolves, but there are not 30 or 40 players who can play in the Super League.

"The majority of your players will not be with you the following season and there would be a massive rebuild. Huddersfield are best example. They finished bottom the first two or three years under one of the best coaches we have seen for many years in Tony Smith. The current England coach Steve McNamara was the captain but they had very difficult times. He needed two or three years to build. The laid some very good foundations for a club who are now a top four club - but it took a long time to do it."

Flawed sytem

Shaun McRae believes that the licencing system does have flaws but it is the best option for Super League and should be given a chance

"Most systems have a failure at some point but the licensing system has to be given an opportunity," explained McRae.

"We have only gone through one round so far - we are now in the first year of the second licensing round. So we need to see how it pans out.

"There are more traditional ideas on promotion and relegation but that in itself has its problems and we have seen that with some clubs - its boom and bust.

The game is probably not wealthy enough to do parachute payments for teams that go down - if you do give them then that is an advantage to the club that goes down. So whatever system you have you have got to get it right and I think the RFL haver got it right, I am a firm believer in the licencing system.

There were a lot of reasons why we introduced it - the one was about business sustainability."